AFP, Reuters
Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:00 AM
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Paris owed a debt to French Polynesia over nuclear tests conducted in the South Pacific territory between 1966 and 1996, but stopped short of apologising. I want truth and transparency, Macron said in a speech to Polynesian officials, adding that there should be better compensation for victims of the tests. The legacy of French testing in the territory remains a source of deep resentment and is seen as evidence of racist colonial attitudes that disregarded the lives of locals. Officials denied any cover-up of radiation exposure earlier this month after French investigative website Disclose reported in March that the impact from the fallout was far more extensive than authorities had acknowledged, citing declassified French military documents. Only 63 Polynesian civilians have been compensated for radiation exposure since the tests ended in 1996, Disclose said, estimating that more than
Shuttling between stations in an assembly hall of a manufacturing base located in the Sino-France Ecology Park in Chengdu, several automated electric trucks carry materials in an orderly and efficient manner, enabling a brand-new car to roll off the production line in less than 20 hours.
The ecology park, home to the manufacturing base of Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company Ltd. (DPCA), is a cooperative project between China and a number of European countries. Inaugurated in 2017, the project aims at excelling in smart transportation, smart energy, high-end equipment manufacturing, energy saving and environmental protection.
By introducing the latest technology from France, we are now able to reduce volatile organic compound emissions when spraying sealer, and make the painting process more environmentally friendly and energy-saving, said DPCA representative Xu Changyu.
French President Emmanuel Macron attends a farewell ceremony for the French armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Francois Lecointre, at the Invalides monument in Paris, on July 21, 2021. (Daniel Cole/AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron is suing a billboard operator who displayed a banner depicting him as Adolf Hitler, it was reported Wednesday.
The posters, which appeared in the southern city of Toulon, showed Macron dressed as the Nazi leader with text beneath reading: “Obey. Get vaccinated.”
Macron’s lawyers are suing Michel-Ange Flori, the man who created the image and billboard, the Guardian newspaper reported.
“I was surprised and shocked,” Flori told a local paper, after being summoned by police over the incident.
French President Emmanuel Macron is suing a billboard owner who depicted him as Adolf Hitler to protest COVID-19 restrictions.
Michel-Ange Flori, who owns about 400 billboards in the southern
département of the Var, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: I have just learnt that I will be heard at the Toulon police station tomorrow following a complaint by the president of the Republic. So in Macronia you can make fun of the prophet s ass, that s satire, but to make the president look like a dictator is blasphemy, he added.
The offending poster portrays Macron in the uniform of Nazi leader Hitler, with a small moustache, a lock on his forehead and the acronym of the presidential movement LREM turned into a swastika. A message reads: Obey, get vaccinated.